Meet West Ham’s new leader
And I genuinely believe that by the end of next season he will be our new on-pitch skipper with Mark Noble becoming the club captain.
Expect him to be named as captain at the start of next season – the man is a real leader – something we have been missing.
His age doesn’t worry me at all – he’s a top class player from whom we will be likely to get another three good years and he is precisely the right guy to put serious steel into our defence.
I’ve watched him a lot down the years and the man is a brilliant player and organiser who makes those around him far better and improves youngsters – Sam Byram in particular will come on a bomb.
Nathanial Clyne and Virgil van Dyke are another couple who spring to mind. This lad Fonte is a top class and everybody should be thrilled that he is on board.
Winston Reid is a fabulous player but he is not an organiser like this guy – he is exactly what we are looking for and at £8 million is a tremendous buy despite his age.
As a defender is flexible who can play in back threes or back fours. For West Ham to have landed such a quality operator is brilliant news. Top top signing.
We move on to Middlesbrough today (Sat ) looking to build on last week’s 3-0 win against Palace but I think today’s opposition will be a bit tougher to handle than Sam Allardyce’s men.
We are five points clear and Boro will have the mindset that home matches must be won. I don’t think they will beat us but they will make it very tough and I reckon a sore-less draw may be on the cards.